When Senator JD Vance takes the stage at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Wednesday (17), he will be seen by many supporters as the newly anointed heir to Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
The selection of Vance, a 39-year-old firebrand populist, as his vice presidential running mate signaled that the 78-year-old former president sees his movement as one that can extend beyond his own time in office. If Trump wins the Nov. 5 presidential election, he would be able to serve only until 2029.
Vance’s task on Wednesday (17) and in the months ahead will be to reassure those who doubt his credentials to represent the movement and, at the same time, bring voters skeptical of Trump into the fold, having previously compared Trump to Adolf Hitler before becoming a staunch defender of the former president.
Erick Erickson, a prominent conservative commentator, believes Vance, who achieved national fame after writing the memoir “Once Upon a Hill,” can do it.
“JD Vance can talk about Trump to people who don’t understand Trump,” Erickson told Reuters in an interview. “He can explain his agenda.”
According to him, this agenda is largely a loose form of economic populism that focuses on the middle class and favors greater government involvement in the economy and seeks to avoid alliances and involvement abroad.
The movement itself is as much a branding exercise as it is a catch-all term for diehard Trump supporters. They include those who harbor deep racial grievances and many who follow his lead on political issues, regardless of their position on the ideological spectrum.
“In Trump’s hands, it’s just instincts and impulses, some of which emerge from white people’s grievances,” said Damon Linker, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “But in Vance’s (formulation), it’s much bigger than that. Or at least he wants it to be.”
Vance, a Yale Law School graduate and former businessman, is now well positioned to help shape Trump’s often scattered vision into something coherent for the future, he said.
While Trump often uses simple but memorable phrases, Vance can delve into the nuances of policy in conservative forums and in lengthy interviews with the press.
“He brings intellectual firepower to whatever MAGA stands for,” Erickson said.
That could be crucial because Trump’s movement was never ideological but based on Trump’s own instincts, Linker said. Without the right successor, the movement could die with him.
Trump’s critics are skeptical, saying the strength of his celebrity and personality has given him an influence that would be nearly impossible for a potential successor to replicate.
Source: CNN Brasil
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